Mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, has hailed a “historic day” for the city and Panathinaikos after a construction permit was issued for the development of the Greek Super League football club’s new stadium.
The announcement yesterday (Tuesday) is set to grant fresh impetus to a long-delayed project which will involve the delivery of a 40,000-seat stadium as part of a wider urban redevelopment project for the district of Votanikos that also includes a park, entertainment venues and shops.
The new stadium project also includes the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium. Panathinaikos’ historic home, which first opened in 1922, has had its demolition permit issued, a prerequisite for approval of the construction permit for the new facility.
Doukas said: “It is a historic day for Panathinaikos and Athens. With the issuance of the building permit for the construction of the new state-of-the-art stadium, a well-coordinated effort, which ran at an unprecedented pace over the last eight months, is sealed.
“I would like to thank all the services and the co-authors who contributed their utmost, so that we could achieve immediate results in a very short period of time. It was a commitment that we undertook and implemented unwaveringly for the fans of Panathinaikos, but also the residents of the wider area who will see Votanikos being upgraded.”
Yesterday’s announcement came after a €115m (£96.9m/$128.1m) funding package for the construction of the new stadium was approved by the Ministry of the Interior on June 20. In May 2023, Panathinaikos had said it will move into the “most modern stadium in Greece” after a contract was signed to build the new venue. At that time, the club expected to move into the stadium within the next three years.
The City of Athens yesterday warned there remains “many things” that need to be concluded in order to progress and complete what it described as the “largest and most complex” local government project ever undertaken in Greece.
It added: “Today fills us with optimism and energy to continue apace in the face of this enormous challenge.”
In response to yesterday’s news, Panathinaikos said: “We must not forget that the project still has important stages until its implementation. We expect the competent bodies to show the fastest possible response, in order to keep the commitments and to end the many years of waiting for all of us, so that Panathinaikos can enter its new stadium as soon as possible.”
